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One of the world's biggest human rights conferences was supposed to start this week in Zambia, but the host country suddenly canceled the conference, and the event organizers say they were told it was because China objected. NPR's Emily Feng has this story.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: More than 2,500 people had visas and tickets to fly to Zambia for RightsCon this month. That's an annual gathering of digital rights and human rights advocates. And then in late April, the team of RightsCon director Nikki Gladstone got a call from a Zambian official.
NIKKI GLADSTONE: In that call, they let us know that diplomats from the People's Republic of China were putting pressure on the government of Zambia because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person.
FENG: Participants from Taiwan - that's the Democratic island China one day wants to control. For decades, Beijing has tried to exclude officials from Taiwan from international events and meetings. China's embassy in the U.S. said it was unaware of what happened when asked for comment. Zambia's presidential office said in a statement to NPR that it was postponing RightsCon because it needed more disclosure of what it called critical information. Gladstone says RightsCon was told the entire event was off. That has left prospective participants like Hong Kong political activist Samuel Chu scrambling.
SAMUEL CHU: You're not just canceling the travel. You are disrupting a global civic space and network.
FENG: Chinese pressure on Taiwan is not new. In just the past month, China has leaned on three countries to revoke airspace permissions to Taiwan's president, forcing him to delay a big trip abroad to Africa. It has warned Canada that engagement with Taiwan will hurt Canada's ties with China, and Beijing even revoked credentials to an American journalist after their outlet interviewed Taiwan's president. Taiwan's foreign ministry, members of its legislature and their president's office had no comment when contacted by NPR for this story.
BONNIE GLASER: I think the Chinese are emboldened.
FENG: Emboldened, says Bonnie Glaser at the German Marshall Fund in Washington and a China-Taiwan expert, because China makes rare earth products that are key to everything from defense equipment to smartphones, and they have threatened to cut those off to the U.S.
GLASER: This (ph) leverage that it has used over the United States and other countries to deter policies it opposes, to coerce specific policy outcomes that are more favorable to China - they're weaponizing this dependence.
FENG: Plus, with President Trump scheduled to visit China this month, Glaser says Beijing senses reluctance from the U.S. to advocate for Taiwan.
GLASER: I think the Chinese see opportunities presented by President Trump's restraint on Taiwan.
FENG: For example, she says, restraint on once-routine U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which have been delayed. And in April, a prominent Taiwanese politician from the opposition party, the KMT, made a controversial visit to China and met the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Kharis Templeman, who studies Taiwanese politics at Stanford University, says that visit gave Beijing hope that it can potentially influence Taiwanese politics.
KHARIS TEMPLEMAN: They have a partner in the KMT now that they think they can work with, and they haven't had that for a while.
FENG: And this flex from China in Zambia shows how Beijing has been able to increase its global sway at a time when the U.S. is stepping back internationally.
EMMANUEL MATAMBO: Timing is very important.
FENG: Scholar Emmanuel Matambo, who studies China-Africa ties at the University of Johannesburg, points out that days before Zambia canceled the conference, China signed a new agreement to fund several big development projects in Zambia. By contrast, the U.S. has been withholding millions of dollars in AIDS treatment funding to Zambia.
MATAMBO: The United States is using bullying tactics.
FENG: And on the other side, Matambo says, you have China.
MATAMBO: On the other side, you have a China that is really signing memoranda of understanding with the Zambian government. So by default, China is being presented as a partner of last resort.
FENG: And so Zambia, he says, likely felt like it had no choice but to listen to China. Emily Feng, NPR News.
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